The apparatus of this invention relates broadly to a machine for cleaning and treating floors having hard surfaces such as wood, vinyl, tile, etc., and most specifically to a combination machine which can be used for several of the requirements for treating a floor including cleaning, stripping, waxing, polishing, etc. In addition, the machine of this invention also uses reciprocating motion applied to a rectangular scrubbing or polishing unit rather than a round rotating scrubbing unit.
The typical and presently available heavy duty floor cleaning and treating unit, uses one or more power driven, round, rotating scrub brushes or polishing pads. As is well known by persons familar with these machines they are difficult to guide and maneuver as they tend to "run away" if not carefully controlled. In addition, the large round brushes cannot, because of their shape be used to effectively clean the inside corners of the floor. Similarly, these machines with such round brushes cannot effectively strip, clean or polish a waxed floor. Consequently, floors which are continuously cleaned and waxed by such machines will eventually develop a large accumulation of dirt and wax build up at their inside corners. The accumulation of dirt and wax must then be removed by hand scrubbing at regular intervals if it is to be removed at all. Such hand scrubbing is, of course, time consuming and not nearly effective as power driven cleaning and waxing. In addition, the centrifigal force created by the rotating scrubber tends to sling any cleaning solution, wax or other fluid out and away from the brush or polishing pad in every direction. This slinging tendancy often results in dirty cleaning solutions being thrown against walls and over portions of the floor already cleaned, or wax being thrown over portions of the floor already buffed. In additon, the wide dispersal of fluid away from the machine makes it very difficult to vacuum or otherwise remove any excess fluid.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide apparatus which can be used for cleaning, waxing and polishing hard surface floors.
It is still another object of this invention to provide floor apparatus for cleaning and waxing which can reach to the inside corners of a floor.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide cleaning, waxing and polishing apparatus which does not tend to sling fluids or waxes over areas of a floor already treated.
It is another object of this invention to provide a combination machine which can be selectively used for cleaning, waxing and polishing.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a machine which can remove dirty cleaning solutions and excess waxes from a treated floor.